Taoiseach Charles Haughey was advised to order fast-tracked excavations of Viking Dublin at Wood Quay to resolve the long-running dispute over its redevelopment.
A Government briefing memo urged archaeological digs be speeded up and spread across the entire site as a means of selling the project to opponents, including former president Mary Robinson.
Senior officials in Dublin Corporation, which was said to be devilled by paranoia over the work, did not "buy" the idea, the papers revealed.
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